DIOSCORUS BOLES ON COPTIC NATIONALISM ديسقورس بولس في القومية القبطية

REASONS FOR LEARNING COPTIC LANGUAGE

September 24, 2014

Coptic is studied for different reasons. Westernern scholars study Coptic because they are by large interested in Egyptology and Classic Antiquity; and for this reason they show more interest in learning the Sahidic dialect than Bohairic.

Copts learn Coptic for two reasons:
1. Many learn it for religious reasons – they want to understand the Coptic liturgy and hymns. The content of their curriculum is religious mainly. For this, they learn Bohairic as is known in its new form, Neo-Bohairic which was developed in the 1850s.
2. Some learn it because it’s a core element in Coptic identity – they want to talk and write in it to describe the world and life around us and to express our feelings and thoughts, religious and secular. Their interest is not limited to the sacred and religious. This group is divided into those who use Old-Bohairic and those who take Neo-Bihairic as the form to revive.

Coptic Nationalism subscribes to the second group – Coptic must be revived as a national language capable of describing modern life.